Merlin: series 5 episode 1
by Shelfmoon
Summary: Merlin and the knights are on a quest to reach the ring of power before Morgana. However nothing is at it seems and a big secret is about to be revealed.
1. Chapter 1

"Knights of Camelot," called King Arthur. Everyone fell silent and stood up as the King entered, putting all their attention on him. Exactly what Arthur wanted. Despite him being a king who is very brave and honourable, he was very self-centred or, to put it another way, up himself. He paused for dramatic effect and to soak up the admiration, then continued. "The 71st round table meeting is now in session." said Arthur rapping the table with his fist. Everyone sat, picked up their papers and straightened them. "Merlin," whispered Arthur turning round to his servant who stood behind him. "Yes?"

"Does my hair look alright?" Merlin nodded slowly. Arthur gave a sigh of relief and turned back to face everyone else. Merlin couldn't believe how self -absorbed he was, and how stupid. "Now. Looking at the minutes from the last meeting we seemed to have covered everything so now we need to address the current threat … er that is threatening us." said Arthur.

"Threat, Sire?" questioned Sir Gwaine.

"Yes my very fit friend. Camelot is under threat from a very evil power."

"What Sire?" the Knights asked looking scared.

"A ring." said Arthur majestically. Silence. Merlin put his forehead in his hand and shook his head in despair.

"A ring sire?"

"I don't understand Sire how is a ring a threat?" asked Sir Percival looking puzzled.

"Well of course you don't understand Percival. You're all brawn and no brain. This is a situation you can't possibly comprehend."

"Sire," Merlin whispered, leaning over Arthur's shoulder "you shouldn't insult Percival. It isn't good for his self- confidence."

"Shut-up Merlin." Arthur sighed. "Look. If this ring gets into the wrong hands it would destroy everything we've worked so hard to build."

"You mean Morgana's hands Sire? said Eylan who was doodling on a piece of parchment.

"Yes of course I mean Morgana. That witch is nearly always involved in everything bad that has happened since I became King. She is so annoying, always insulting me, making me look like a bad king and trying to kill me. God I hate her!" moaned Arthur.

"Just ignore her Arthur. The only reason she does it is because she knows it winds you up," said Merlin "and try not to hate her. She is family after all."

"Shut-up Merlin."

"So what do you propose we do Sire?" asked Sir Leon.

"We stop Morgana from finding the ring. Now what is next on the agenda?"

"People are not wearing enough hats these days."

* * *

Meanwhile, deep in Morgana's secret cave …

"Tell me more about this ring of power Saruman. It sounds very intriguing." smiled Morgana. She swirled the contents of her goblet around before taking a sip. Saruman took a long drink from his own goblet before talking.

"Well," he put down the goblet "Long ago in Mordor this guy Sauron, ever heard of him? No? Nice bloke, nice bloke. Well he made this ring to rule over all the other people. There were loads of wars, and to put a long a long story short Sauron was defeated the ring was lost then found again by this hobbit, then this hobbit ,Baggins is his name, gave it to his nephew. Now his nephew is travelling to Mordor." Saruman paused and refilled his goblet and took another drink. "So what I'm suggesting is that you take the ring from Baggins and it's yours. Don't worry it'll be easy to overpower him he's only what 3 or 4 feet tall."

Morgana smiled an evil smile. "And this ring will help me kill Arthur so I can rule Camelot."

"Yes, although I don't see why you haven't killed before?" frowned Saruman.

"Arthur has some guy called Emrys protecting him. Every time I tried to kill Arthur Emrys stopped me!" moaned Morgana.

"Do you know who this Emrys is?"

"No," sighed Morgana. "It's so annoying not knowing who he is!"

"It's probably someone you'd least expect. Someone right under your nose. Oh I don't know someone like Merlin."

"Merlin? Ha! It couldn't be him. He's the biggest idiot I've ever met. He wouldn't know what magic was, even if it hit him in the face!" Little did Morgana know that as soon as she said those words Merlin was in-fact hit in the face by magic. One of his spells backfired. Long story.

"So how do we find the ring?" asked Morgana, throwing away the last crumbs off the plate she had been eating from and wiped her hands on a napkin. "With a highly trained animal who can hear the rings call from about 10 leagues off. Very clever, the latest in ring tracking technology." replied Saruman. "Very reliable as well. As soon as it catches a whiff of the ring it'll be off. It won't rest until it's found the ring."

Morgana positively beamed. She cleared the plates away and then returned to her chair. "Where is this animal?" she asked. Saruman whistled and called out, "Sméagol!" There was a sound of scrabbling and high pitch squeals. The two people stood and watched the front door. There was a loud yell and then a rather wild looking Sméagol burst in. "Master called Sméagol?" The creature said bowing low in front of Saruman.

"Yes, Lady Morgana and I require a service of you." Saruman paused. He looked uneasy, nervous. "We need you to find Frodo Baggins and take the ring from him." said Saruman very slowly. Sméagol's eyes widened and he grinned like a child at Christmas. "Master wishes us to seek the precious?" Sméagol whispered.

"Yes."

"Of course we shall finds the precious." said Sméagol happily. Then Gollum took over. "But theys just wants it for themselves." Gollum hissed. "They will keeps it from us!" "No, no. Master is kind he will lets us have the precious." retaliated Sméagol. "No they will keeps it from us. I says we finds the precious thens we cuts their throats and takes precious for ourselves." "NO!"

"Is he always like this?" asked Morgana who was gazing at Sméagol with confusion.

"Yes, not sure why. I think it's normal." whispered Saruman over the frenzied argument going on between Gollum and Sméagol. "Don't worry just give him time to finish his argument. Gollum nearly always wins anyway."

" Right," said Morgana "we will leave in the morning." And with that she walked off to her room leaving the white wizard with the crazed Sméagol.

...


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was just rising over Camelot. Fresh dew covered the grass and a cold wind blew through the trees. The Knights of Camelot stood there shivering in the cold morning. They pulled their cloaks around them tighter to keep warm. "You know I've just realised something," said Eylan "these cloaks aren't exactly camouflaged are they? I mean we're just big read targets, sitting here like ducks!" Everyone ignored him, they were too cold to care. "It is s-so c-c-cold!" chattered Gwaine.

"Maybe you should put a shirt on then." snapped Percival.

"N-no w-w-way. H-how a-am I s-s-supposed t-to in-impress t-the ladies if I'm w-wearing a s-shirt?"

Lancelot was fine (oh he's alive by the way. He was brought back to life for the purpose of this story otherwise there won't be that many Knights) he had a hot water bottle, some hand warmers and an electric blanket disguised as a cloak.

King Arthur was staring very confused at a map. Map reading wasn't really his forte though. Running people through with swords was more his thing. Merlin let out an exasperated sigh and paced up and down impatiently. Everyone was just so God damn useless. He had to do everything round here. He stopped pacing and folded his arms. "Do you need any help?" he called causing Arthur to jump.

"No Merlin. I can read a map thank you!" he said irritably. Merlin almost let out a laugh but by now he was so exhausted by how pathetically useless Arthur was that he couldn't be bothered. He had saved Arthur's royal backside so many times he had lost count. Saved Camelot more times than he cared to remember and every time he had convince Arthur that he wasn't completely useless with stupid stunts, like making him pull the sword out of the stone. Arthur didn't even do it! He only managed to pull it out because Merlin used magic. No one could possibly have pulled that sword out of the stone!

Arthur let out a frustrated yell and punched a nearby tree. "Taking your anger out on a tree. That will solve all your problems." muttered Merlin sarcastically.

"Shut-up Merlin!" shouted Arthur. "Anyway it's not my fault the maps broken!" Merlin frowned at Arthur contemplating his stupidity. "The maps not broken, Arthur," Merlin said slowly, resisting the urge to yell and punch someone in the face "you're looking at it upside down." The king picked up the map, turned it around and looked at it again. "Ah yes." He turned to his men. "Right men follow me it's this way!" shouted Arthur pointing in a Northerly direction. He then proceeded to stroll right past Merlin and down the hill leading toward Camelot. "The other way Arthur." said Merlin loudly. Arthur stormed back looking red in the face. Merlin shook his head in despair and followed him.

The rest of the day was uneventful for the Knights of Camelot, the king and his servant who was a wizard and they had no idea. Merlin couldn't believe they hadn't actually noticed that he could use magic. He had done it right in front of Arthurs face like a million times but he had been too busy wallowing in misery about banishing Gwen to notice. Another thing Merlin had realised was the people who knew he had magic seemed to die. Lancelot knew and he had died (but was revived for this story). Agravaine, Arthur's uncle who had betrayed him and worked with Morgana (see series 4) found out that Merlin had magic and then Merlin killed him because he was a pathetic loser who worked with Morgana. Amy and Rory died – oh no wait that's Doctor Who, sorry, I didn't really like the ending of that episode. The weeping angels were awesome though! Ah LOL! Right sorry, went off track a bit there. Back to the story and our heroes had come across a mysterious looking bridge

"Arthur what are you doing?" asked Merlin trying to remain calm.

"I'm hiding behind you, what does it look like I'm doing!" snapped Arthur who was indeed hiding behind Merlin. "What for?"

"It's evil!"

"Arthur it is a bridge!" said Merlin.

"Shhhhhhhh!" whispered the Knights. They had their swords drawn and were staring at the bridge with perpetual fear. "Oh and the bridge is going to get up impale you on a spike is it!" hissed Merlin.

"Don't be stupid Merlin a bridge couldn't do that!" whispered Arthur "Trolls live under bridges."

"So?" asked Merlin, looking over his shoulder at everyone.

"It could be a troll that would enchant me and make it marry me like what happened to my father!" said Arthur looking genuinely scared. Merlin smiled at the memory, that was a funny few days. "I don't think you should be scared of the troll. You should be scared of Gwen if she found out you married a troll." said Merlin, picturing Gwen beating Arthur with a stick. "That wouldn't matter it would make us even." replied Arthur.

"How?"

"Because Lancelot snogged her. So the troll is what I need to worry about."

"Hey!" protested Lancelot "She came onto me!"

"Never mind that now. Merlin you go check if there's a troll." Arthur pushed merlin forward towards the bridge. Merlin stumbled a little then stood and straightened himself up. He closed his eyes took a deep breath and walked forward confidently.

As Merlin strolled forward he pictured the stupid looks on their faces when he proved there was no troll. When he was halfway across the bridge a person blocked his path. The person was a man, tall with a long beard, wearing a long grey robe and he carried a staff. "You shall not pass!" the man shouted. "Excuse me?" said Merlin with disgust. He did not like this man's manners.

"You shall not pass!" the man shouted again.

"Why?"

The man went to shout again then stopped. He looked as if he were pondering some great philosophical question in his mind. "You know. I've don't really know. I mean I've never really thought about it before." The man said leaning on his staff. Merlin stood there not knowing really what to say. "The names Gandalf. I'm a wizard." said the man extending his hand out to Merlin. He shook it and smiled. "Hello Gandalf, I'm Merlin."

"OMG! Seriously? The Merlin! Ah man you are so totally awesome!" said Gandalf beaming and shaking Merlin's hand with renewed vigour.

"Guys you can come out now. There's no troll!" called Merlin. Slowly the Knights and Arthur emerged from their hiding places. Cautiously they made their way towards to bridge and upon seeing Merlin and Gandalf they put away their swords and relaxed. Arthur strode forward and shook Gandalf's hand. "I am so glad that you aren't a troll because if you were, well then that would have been disastrous!" said Arthur with relief on his face. Gandalf looked confused. "I'm not a troll I'm a wi-"he cut off midsentence seeing Merlin frantically shaking his head. "Ah I see, not the right time yet." Arthur looked confused. "Hey guys," called Gandalf "come and meet my new friends!"

Eight people walked up onto the bridge. Well, I say people, it was more four Hobbit's, two humans one Dwarf and one elf. "This is Frodo Baggins, Sam, Merry and Pippin." said Gandalf gesturing to the four Hobbits. The Knights of Camelot looked down at them confused. They were always confused about everything. One of the men stepped forward, "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, the heir to Isildur and-"

"Yes that's enough now," interrupted the second man "my name is Boromir. Son of-"

"Yes and I'm Legolas," interrupted the elf "and this is Glimli and we are the Fellowship of the Ring." He said resting his hand on the dwarfs shoulder. "And what might me do for you young warlock." said Glimli glancing up at Merlin.

"Shhhhhhhh!" chastised Merlin not wanting to be discovered now that he could use magic.

"What's, what's a warlock?" asked Arthur.

"Someone who can use magic." said Sir Galahad.

"Oh right." said Arthur and he didn't question it further.

"So what are you doing here?" Merlin asked, intrigued by the strange group of people.

"Well Frodo here's off to Mordor to destroy the ring and we are to accompany him. Wait have you got the ring Frodo?" said Gandalf.

"Yes, I've got the ring you've asked me that at least a million times since we left Rivendell!" shouted Frodo clearly annoyed.

"That's good, just don't let Lady Morgana get it okay." said Arthur.

"You're heading to Mordor?" asked Merlin.

"Yes, why?"

"Well it's just you're quite a long way from Mordor. I mean this is England not Middle Earth."

"Damn it I knew we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere in Moria." cursed Gandalf. "Right come on people, Hobbits, Dwarf, and Elf. Back the way we came!" announced Gandalf. There was a collected groan from the group as they turned on their heels and trudged out of sight. The Knights of Camelot waved goodbye to the estranged group, still very much confused.


	3. Chapter 3

Morgana sat on a tree stump feeling very frustrated. Sméagol was having an argument with Gollum. Again. "We can'ts finds precious!" wailed Sméagol.

"That's because the humans is hiding it's from us." hissed Gollum. Morgana rolled her eyes. Gollum seemed convinced that she actually had the ring or 'precious' as Sméagol and Gollum called it.

"No master wants us to find the precious he wouldn't hides it from us." replied Sméagol, though he sounded unsure of himself.

Morgana let out a long sigh, she sat up and went for a walk. Everything was just so hard these days. She needed to take over Camelot, kill her annoying half -brother and try to get everyone to like her at the same time but the problem was three fold. One; preparing an whole army and finding ways into Camelot took so much time and effort that she only got a shot at taking over once at the end of each series. Two; she couldn't kill Arthur because of that stupid Emrys and the one time she got someone to find out who it was that guy turned on her, and also no one could catch Emrys anytime she saw him. God how hard is it to catch an eighty year old man? Three; she didn't really care about getting people to like her, really, because in truth she hated everyone and they wound her up.

After a while she could hear that Sméagol had stopped talking and that he was ready to continue. Morgana headed back to the clearing. It was empty. "Sméagol!" she called. There was no reply. "Sméagol!" Annoyed Morgana sat back down on the same tree stump and let out a sigh. Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

"So what do we do now, that we know the ring is going to be destroyed?" asked Gwaine who was trudging along very slowly behind the rest of the group.

"We find Morgana and kill her then we go home for tea." replied Arthur brightly.

"But how do we know where Morgana is going to be?"

"Merlin!" called Arthur.

"Hang on a minute!" Merlin called back. He took a book out of his bag and began flicking through it. "Well the 'The Hobbit' says that Bilbo Baggins finds the ring in a cave … so … Morgana might head to-"he paused and pulled a map out of his bag and glanced at it "Morgana will probably head to the Caves of Peril."

The Knights let out a collected gasp of fear. "Gasp!" breathed Lancelot.

"What?" said Merlin looking up.

"The Caves of Peril, they are the most perilous caves in the whole kingdom!" exclaimed Galahad.

"No kidding." muttered Merlin still gazing at the map.

"Well I'm not going in there. No way."

"Lancelot you're the bravest out of all of us." said Leon.

"So? There's no way I'm going in there and we can't beat Morgana she's so strong!"

"That's what you think." muttered Merlin.

"Hey!" shouted Arthur. "You listen to me now, yes she can use magic and yes she is infinitely powerful but you're forgetting something. You have me."

"Oh no not again." said Merlin under his breath.

"When Morgana last tried to take over Camelot I thought all hope was lost-"

"Oh Jesus Christ!"

"-I thought that there was no way I could stop her but then after I convinced myself that I was worth it I felt it was time to fight back. I pulled the sword out of the stone-"

"What! No you didn't I helped you-" protested Merlin angrily but Arthur took no notice.

"-And I somehow stopped Morgana from using magic-"

"You son of a-" muttered Merlin going back to 'The Hobbit'.

"-Then I lead everyone to victory. So you see guys, if I can do that then there is no way that you can't enter the Caves of Peril and kill the evil witch. Are you with me?" the Knights answered with a cheer and drew their swords. "Right then follow me!" cried Arthur and our heroes set off and their unappreciated wizard reluctantly followed.

The Knights, Arthur and Merlin travelled far. First they crossed the bridge where the reluctant troll lived. It was reluctant at first but they lured it out with some fruit and severed its head with Excalibur (for those of you who don't know that it is the name of the sword that Arthur sort of pulled out of the stone, with help from Merlin by using magic). Then they went through Sherwood Forest and jumped forward in time (but not space) and met Robin Hood. Then they travelled back to Arthurs time (whenever the hell that is) and crossed the river of Jelly, where they had to use a spoon to get themselves across. After that they traversed the White Mountains which incidentally appear in any story where there are mountains and people are too lazy to come up with an interesting name. Either that or they have a poor imagination. Finally after a quick nap they reached the entrance to the Caves of Peril …

The entrance to the cave certainly didn't look perilous; not in the slightest. There was nothing scary or suspicious looking. Completely and perfectly ordinary. Well apart from the pie stand to the right of the entrance where four men were stood, making pies and singing.

"Pies! They're so lovely and tasty! Pies! Wonderful soft pastry, pies! When you start cooking everyone starts looking. Pies, pies, pies! You are so great you know it's true! Everyone has their eye on you, yeah. When you start cooking everyone starts looking. Pies, pies, pies! Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, de, do-"(sorry that wasn't so good I'm not sure how to write down the riff in words).

"Hey can we get a pie? I'm hungry."

"No we cannot. We must continue on our quest." said Arthur. Then he turned away from the singing pie makers and strode bravely into the Caves of Peril.


	4. Chapter 4

Inside the caves it was dark, very dark. The walls were damp and slimy and covered in cobwebs meaning there were spiders everywhere. No one spoke as they made their way deeper into the caves. The group was on edge jumping at every sound they heard and absolutely freaking if they saw a spider. The caves seemed to go on forever, but so far no perils. Eventually the tunnel split into 4 different tunnels. "Right we'll have to split up. Gwaine and Lancelot you go that way," whispered Arthur pointing at the tunnel on the far right "Galahad and Leon you take the second tunnel. Percival and Eylan you search the third and Merlin and I will take this tunnel. Alright?" They all nodded in agreement and went their separate ways.

"What are you actually going to do if you find Morgana?" asked Merlin holding up a torch to light the way for Arthur. "Kill her." came the reply.

"Really? She is your sister I mean could you actually do it?"

"Shut-up Merlin."

The two carried on in silence, the further down they travelled the more the caves opened up into huge domed rooms. Soon they reached a point where the path spilt again. Merlin carried on his own annoyed that he had to leave Arthur unoccupied. The caves seemed to be a labyrinth, twisting and turning hitting dead ends. From where Merlin was walking he could see down into the cave below. Standing in the middle of it was Morgana. Merlin quickly ducked down and peered over the edge of the path. Arthur had just walked into the room and was talking with Morgana. He was going to need help. Merlin took out his old man beard disguise, which he used so he could fool Morgana into thinking Emrys was an old man, and put it on. Then someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Merlin jumped and quickly whipped round only to find that it was Gandalf standing behind him.

"Jesus Christ, Gandalf you scared the hell out of me!" exclaimed Merlin in a strained whisper.

"Who the hell are you?" mouthed Gandalf so those below would not hear.

Merlin pulled of the beard.

"Merlin's beard Merlin it's you!" exclaimed Gandalf with his hand over his chest. "Never use the lords name in vain Merlin, besides you almost gave me a heart attack!" He berated.

"Never mind that," whispered Merlin "what are you doing here?" Gandalf looked embarrassed.

"Well, we were in Rohan when Frodo realised he had dropped the ring so we came back to look for it."

"Right," said Merlin "we need to save Arthur"

Arthur was now being punched repeatedly in the face by Morgana. Siblings. "Got it. Let's go!" mouthed Gandalf. Merlin put his beard back on and they headed down towards Morgana and Arthur.

* * *

Look out guys this is where it gets good …

* * *

The two wizards jumped out yelling causing Morgana and Arthur to start with fright. "Feck! It's Emrys!" cried Morgana, waving her arms around in a strange way. Then they were tackled by some orcs who were allied with Morgana. Arthur staggered to his feet pinching his broken nose to stop the bleeding. "I'm bleeding! God I hate you so much Morgana!" he snapped. Gandalf tried to fight the orcs with magic but they grabbed his staff and snapped it in two. "There goes the elder wand." muttered Gandalf miserably.

"That's not the elder wand." said Merlin. Gandalf looked even more miserable.

"At last," smiled Morgana striding forward "I finally find out who Emrys is!" she squealed with delight before regaining her composure. Slowly she reached out her hand and pulled off the fake beard. She let out a small gasp and the beard fell to the floor. "Merlin?" she said sounding confused.

"Merlin?" shouted Arthur.

"You're Emrys?"

"You're a wizard!"

"You're Emrys?"

"You practise magic!"

"He's Emrys!"

"He's my servant and he practises magic!"

"Oh my wizard god he's Emrys!"

"HE'S MY SERVANT AND HE PRACTISES MAGIC!"

"SHUT-UP!" shouted Merlin. They all fell silent.

Morgana broke it. "No this must be a mistake, you're too stupid to be Emrys." said Morgana. She continued saying the same sentence over and over again like some form of mantra, pacing up and down refusing to believe the evidence of her eyes.

Meanwhile poor Arthur was getting quite emotional it was too much for him to take. "All these years and you were a wizard! Why didn't you tell me?" he cried.

"If I did your dad would have had my head chopped off." retaliated Merlin.

"What, did you think I was too stupid to figure it out?" shouted Arthur ignoring Merlin's previous words.

"You didn't figure it out and I practically used magic in front of you every day!" Merlin roared back.

"He can't be Emrys, he can't be, he's too stupid-" Morgana continually repeated to herself whilst pacing up and down frantically.

"How many more lies are there?" sobbed Arthur hysterically.

"Oh ... um ... er," Merlin was caught off gaurd by the question, there were so many lies he didn't know quite where to begin,

"God, er ... um ... you know when the Great Dragon was attacking Camelot and you thought you'd killed it. Well you didn't because I set it free because I'm the last Dragon Lord. Ooh, oh there was that time we went to destroy the last Dragon egg yeah? Well I took it, hatched it, now there are two Dragons, er yay. Then there was that time I killed Ag- god every thing is a um lie." Merlin really wasn't handling this wel.l "Look that doesn't even matter! Do you know how many times I saved your ungrateful royal backside? Hm yeah more ... more bloody times then I care to remember and do I even get a thank you? No sir! In fact if it wasn't for me you wouldn't even be here right now!" yelled Merlin furiously.

* * *

Meanwhile …

"PRECIOUS!" Sméagol let out an elated cry holding the ring of power aloft (which he had just found). Staring at it with love and adoration in his eyes. Gandalf shook off the orcs and launched himself at Sméagol. Legolas, Glimli and Aragorn leapt into the room and started battling orcs which started to stream into the cave.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me this! I thought you were my friend!" yelled Arthur who had tears streaming down his face.

"You've never treated me like a friend your whole life. You've been mean, selfish, making me do all the work never doing anything yourself, you've beaten me up, thrown stuff at me- do I need to go on!" Merlin yelled back.

"15!" shouted Glimli happily.

"31" Legolas shouted back from the other side of the cave. Glimli's smile turned into a frown.

The Knights charged in at this point slashing at orcs happily as if it were a game. Lancelot went over to a sobbing Arthur. "Are you alright Sire?" he asked putting his hand on Arthur's shoulder. Arthur threw himself at Lancelot hugging him tightly and sobbing into his chest. Lancelot looked very taken aback. He stood very stiffly unsure of what he needed to do. He glanced over at Merlin and saw Merlin looking back ion despair. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Merlin's a wizard!" cried Arthur pathetically his voice muffled.

"Yeah I already know." replied Lancelot awkwardly. Arthur stopped crying and looked up and stared at Lancelot. Then he turned to face Merlin his eyes welling up again. "He knows! How many more people have you told?" yelled Arthur.

"Um, well Gaius knows-"

"Why did you tell everyone but not tell me?" At this moment Lancelot slapped Arthur very hard round the face and grabbed him by his jacket and shook him. This stopped Arthur's blubbering straight away. "Now I want you two to stop arguing now!" shouted Lancelot. "Look, you should be ashamed of yourself! You're supposed to be our king. You're supposed to be brave and fight! Not sit there and cry like a child." Lancelot shook Arthur with each word. "Now you pull yourself together because you being pathetic. I'm absolutely ashamed of you Arthur Pendragon! Now get up and you go fight!" Lancelot shouted pointing at everyone else. He glared at Arthur once more, then stalked off into the fight.

Arthur sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes, very much in shock. Despite all that Arthur had said Merlin walked over to him and helped him up. "Are you alright?" Merlin asked gently not wanting the flood gates to open again.

"Yeah I'm fine," said Arthur quietly. He wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Lancelot's right I'm being pathetic. I'm- I'm gonna go kill Morgana now. Merlin I'm really sorry that I shouted at you, I didn't mean it, honest." God, thought Merlin, it was like having a 5-year-old in the room.

"Don't worry I forgive you." Merlin partially lied.

"Are we still friends?" seeing that Arthur's eyes were beginning to well up Merlin nodded. Arthur hugged Merlin in a tight embrace and didn't let go for a few minutes. "Bye Merlin." He said in a very baby like voice. Then Arthur went to find Morgana, the sword in his trembling hand.

* * *

"59!" called Glimli.

"70!" cried Legolas.

Sméagol sat there stroking the ring with a giddy smile on his face. "We founds it! We founds the precious!" whispered Sméagol gleefully.

"Yes but the Hobbits are still alive. Nasty, tricksy Hobbitses we must kill them."

"Hello Sméagol." said Gandalf. He crouched down about a meter away from the creature and held out his hand. "Come on now that's a good boy give me the ring. Yes, that's it give it to me-" Sméagol looked at Gandalf curiously, then took a bite out of his hand and scampered away. "No! Stop that ring!" exclaimed Gandalf and he crawled through the crowd of fighting people, looking for Sméagol.

The Knights were backed up against the wall fighting off orcs. Lashing out blindly hoping they would kill something. Arthur couldn't take any more; he curled up in a ball in the corner and rocked himself backwards and forwards. Legolas, Glimli and Aragorn were having a blast and Gandalf was chasing Sméagol. God knows where the four hobbits were. Morgana who had finally accepted that Merlin was indeed Emrys and not as stupid as she thought he was advanced towards him with a knife in her hand. Merlin walked backwards away from her quickly. She took a swipe at him and he ducked missing the knife by inches. Running backwards now he tried to get away from the evil witch, he hit his back against the wall and realised he was cornered. An evil smile spread across Morgana's face.

"I'm going to kill you Merlin." Merlin panicked and called out to the Dragon in his mind. Morgana raised the knife above her head.

"Shit! Ah magic!" Merlin cried, his eyes did that weird gold thing they do then all the orcs dropped down dead and Morgana disappeared.

Everyone turned to stare at Merlin. "You can do magic?" said Gwaine looking confused but utterly gorgeous at the same time. Merlin nodded weakly and stepped away slowly from the wall. "You know what," said Arthur pretending that he hadn't been crying nearly the whole time "That wasn't so bad." The Knights stared at him.

"Are you mad?"

"What about Merlin he used magic?" said Leon.

"Well not all magic is that bad." said Arthur. Merlin smiled at him.

"But Morgana got away-" started Eylan.

"Come one everyone lets go home for tea. It's been a busy day." Arthur began walking back towards the entrance of the caves ignoring the incredulous looks on everyone's faces.


	5. Chapter 5

Our heroes, including the Fellowship of the Ring, sat eating pies. The sun was beginning to set below the horizon and the sky was a wonderful golden colour. Gandalf sat aside from everyone else, sulking over the fact he had lost Sméagol and the ring. The four singing pie makers serenaded them as they ate. "We want to thank you, we want to thank you for buying our pies-" and so on so forth. "You know what Merlin," said Arthur quietly "I feel bad for treating all people who practise magic as evil but you saved my life so I think I'm going to take a different approach to magic from now on."

"Thank you Arthur." said Merlin, glad that he wasn't going to lose his head.

"Oh my God it's a Dragon!" shouted Sir Galahad pointing up at the sky. The Great Dragon swooped down and landed before them. However the impact of his landing knocked Glimli and the four Hobbits over. "Where's the danger Merlin!" shouted the Dragon.

"There isn't any we won."

"Oh you will be the death of me Merlin. You are so annoying!" sighed the Dragon. "You ask for help then you don't need it or you do the opposite of what I tell you to do." Th Knights stood gazing in awe up at the Dragon. The Fellowship of the Ring ran away screaming thinking he was one of the evil dragon things in lotr ,that I forget what it's called. It was at that point that the Great Dragon gave up on life. He was too old and too clever to deal with these people. "I like trains!" he said sounding depressed and frustrated and then the gleaming scarlet Hogwarts Express sped towards him.

The End

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A/N-  Hey! I hope you enjoyed the story. It's just something I wrote for fun before the start of the latest series of Merlin. If the ending confuses you, don't worry. It's just a strange inside joke my friends and I have. I could try and explain it but then I'd be here for a while. Anyways, I really hoped you enjoyed reading and please leave a review if you feel so inclined. :)

Discliamer: I do not own Merlin, Lord of the Rings or The Hogwarts Express.


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